Australian cricket was rocked on Thursday by the death of a teenage player who was hit by a ball during training at his club in Melbourne.
Ben Austin, 17, was hit high in the neck by a ball delivered by a teammate while batting into the nets at Ferntree Gully Cricket Club on Tuesday, governing body Cricket Victoria (CV) said.
He was rushed to hospital and put on life support but died on Wednesday, his club said.
“The ball hit him in the neck in a similar accident to Phil Hughes 10 years ago,” CV head of cricket Nick Cummins told Australian media.
Australian former Test opener Hughes died in 2014 at the age of 25, two days after being hit in the neck by a short ball during a home match in Sydney.
Austin was wearing a helmet but not a neck guard, Cummins confirmed.
Neck guards, also called stem guards, are clip-on attachments to helmets that provide additional protection to a player’s neck and upper back.
They have been mandatory in elite cricket in Australia since late 2023.
The ball that hit Austin was thrown by a hand-throwing device known locally as Wanger.
Wangers are regularly used in cricket training environments to simulate bowling and reduce physical strain on coaches and bowlers.
Austin’s family released a statement saying they were “utterly devastated.”
“This tragedy has taken Ben from us, but we take some comfort in the fact that he was doing something he had done for so many summers: going to the nets with friends to play cricket,” the statement said.
“We would also like to support his teammate who was bowling in the nets. This accident has affected two young men and our thoughts are also with him and his family.”
